"By now, many may be wondering if I will be tracing every human ill to religious fanaticism, mania, pathology and psychosis. On a global scale, there is much to be said for the notion that religious delusion has created a tremendous amount of suffering, including and significantly as concerns environmental degradation...."

"Last week in the first part of this series, I made the case for atheistic thinking as a natural part of the healthy human mind. I did not, however, draw any firm conclusions as to whether or not atheism as a worldview is a solution to many of society's ills, including and especially religious fanaticism. Indeed, the question remains, is atheism even a worldview?...

"I have sifted through some 200-300 comments on my article both here and elsewhere, remarks running the gamut from glorious to grotesque, encouraging to insulting. Mostly, however, these comments have been thoughtful, rational and profound...."

Friday, August 21, 2009

I wanted to let you know about the great things people are saying about my new book The Gospel According to Acharya S. First of all, just so you know, this book is not about "the" gospel, i.e., the New Testament story of Jesus Christ. It's about MY "good news," which is one meaning of the word "gospel."

In The Gospel, I discuss many of the major religious and spiritual issues that humankind encounters, from a freethinker perspective. That means I don't either mindlessly believe or simply dismiss these concepts. Rather, I explore them and attempt to reconcile them with reality. To read about The Gospel, go here:

"I received your book yesterday, and fell asleep in it last night...in a good way 'cause I couldn't put it down! Devoured most of it!

"THE MOST liberating book I've read...ever! My eyes are open wide now!

"Thank You for your Gospel, aka: GOOD NEWS, no...GREAT NEWS!

"You are very intelligent, bold yet subtle, and I love your sense of humor!

"Also, it's obvious—your love for true humanity, and passion, and truth, and well, pretty much all things that pertain to taking one's mind permanently out of the box that we ourselves, with society's help, have huddled in and under for far too long!

"Acharya takes off the gloves in this book.... In the aforementioned books her approach is a bit more clinical, relying on facts and extremely well done research. She surely hasn't abandoned that set of skills in this book.

"However, I think she is a bit more casual in her writing.... She also offers her view on life and living, hence the title the Gospel According to Acharya S.

"Overall, I'd say this book is going to be a best seller for her. It's loaded with pictures, (perhaps to keep the attention of the less intelligent among us) and loaded with a lot of the relatively obscure words related to the subject matter. Notwithstanding the verbage, this book is an easy read and a real hard hitting, take no prisoners approach to exposing religion for what it truly is. Bravo. 5 Stars."

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These are just a couple of the reviews The Gospel has received. If you would like to know more, please go here:

Monday, August 17, 2009

I have posted another Examiner article, this time exploring the issue of whether or not atheism is the solution to the world's psychological and spiritual ills.

There has been a great deal of debate in the media lately concerning the "New Atheism" as led by "atheist gods" such as Richard Dawkins, P.Z. Myers, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. This notoriety has been enhanced by Dawkins & Co.'s infamous "bus ads," as well as the "Imagine No Religion" billboards by the Freedom from Religion Foundation headed by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. Then there is the little chat between famous atheists Bill Maher and Brad Pitt that is kicking up controversy, along with a number of other "stars" expressing their unbelief. We also read reports that atheism is on the rise in the United States, reaching percentages never recorded before. Truly, atheism is out of the closet.

Friday, August 14, 2009

A New York Time op-ed piece by Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahaway demonstrates just how great Islam is for women. Pointing out that 164 women in Muslim countries were sentenced in the past month to the cruel punishment of flogging, for the most inane and unfair "offenses," Eltahaway sensibly asks, where is the outrage?

The fact is that Islam gets a pass because it is a "religion," it has so many adherents, and its "radicals" and "extremists" (i.e., devout Muslims) have been blowing up, beheading, slaughtering and terrorizing much of the world. People are frankly terrified to speak out against this atrocity because the "religion of peace" has never been anything of the kind. As Eltahaway says concerning the women of Sudan, for example:

They have served as the whipping girls for the Sudanese regime’s cheap game of flogging women to show off its “Islamic principles.”

The International Criminal Court has indicted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. His janjaweed allies in Darfur have been accused of rape. Trousers are “indecent” but rape is just another reminder of how useful women’s bodies are in conveying the message.

There it is in a nutshell: Brutal and vicious rape, beheading, stoning, acid attacks, "honor killings" - none of these horrors and indecencies sully the name of Islam, but a woman wearing trousers does.

Yale University has decided that the "religion of peace" is too violent for it to publish the actual images in its new book about the Danish Muslim cartoon fracas that gripped the world on two different occasions. Bowing to experts on Islamic terrorism, Yale has asserted that to publish the cartoons would "incite violence," showing just how rational and reasonable is the Muslim world in the end.

As is obvious from all the appeasing, terrorism pays off. If you blow up a bunch of things, slaughtering tons of people, and there's enough of you, you will get your way. Violence pays, if the horde is big enough. Now, rather than fighting back by sensibly pointing out how barbaric and savage is this "sensibility" being coddled, entire nations are falling to their knees in capitulation, which is exactly the point of terrorism.

Like so many others, including almost entire European governments, Yale's actions have proved once again that the "religion of peace" is no such thing and that terrorism pays.

Yale University Press has decided against reprinting the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in a book examining the controversy, after being advised by Islam and counterterrorism experts that doing so could incite violence.

As well as leaving out the 12 cartoons which provoked riots across the Islamic world in 2006, Yale also bowed to recommendations not to include any other illustrations of Muhammad, including a 19th century sketch by Gustave Doré of Muhammad in Hell from Dante's Inferno, in the book, The Cartoons That Shook the World.

Author Jytte Klausen said the book had been ready to go to print when the illustrations were pulled, after Yale received some "quite alarmist" statements from experts to whom it had sent the title. A professor of politics at a Massachusetts university, Klausen argued for inclusion of the cartoons in the book, which is due out in November in the US and January in the UK. "People think they know the cartoons and actually, by printing the cartoons, I'm arguing that some of them are Islamophobic, and in the tradition of anti-Semitism. If we can't look at them, how can we discuss this?" she said today.

Friday, August 07, 2009

I have included suggestions I've encountered a number of times over the years during which so many people have asked me the same or similar question. I have also provided approaches I have used in other arenas, such as "going native."

Please go read my article and pass it around to anyone you feel would benefit! Also, be sure to comment - it's easy to comment there, no account needed.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Over the nearly 15 years I've been online, I've received many emails asking me for advice as concerns religious fanaticism by family members and friends that is detrimental to healthy relationships. As this fanaticism often produces hurtful and disheartening exchanges, these inquirers have asked how they could get their friends and family members either to let go of it or to stop proselytizing and pushing it on others....